Say Yes to Life

A Book of Thoughts for Better Living

Sidney Greenberg

• Publisher: Jason Aronson, Inc.
• Year: 1999
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9781461662525
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Jewish Theology

Say Yes to Life: A Book of Thoughts for Better Living reflects a deep understanding of the human condition with all its pain, perplexities, and possibilities. Combining compassion, wisdom, and humor, this life-affirming volume will inspire people of every faith to believe in and bring out the best from within themselves. In this profound book, Rabbi Sidney Greenberg offers seventy-three essays celebrating his belief in the goodness of people and the beauty of life in all its variety. He is confident that traditional values are still alive and shows how we can reinforce the strength of these values to make life better for ourselves and others. He suggests that we can do this by using our best abilities and finest attributes–generosity, kindness, compassion, our powers of communication, a sense of justice, our constructive human energy.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half title
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Introduction
• A Word to the Reader
• To Live All the Days of Our Lives
• Making the Most of Our Best
• It Is Human Nature to Change Human Actions
• Taking a Look at Ourselves
• Check Your Chains
• Who Is a Hero?
• Everybody’s Doing It
• On Blaming Circumstances
• On Running Away from Ourselves
• Humbled by the Stars
• Converting an Inferno into a Place of Beauty
• Many Are Strong in the Broken Places
• Touch Me with Noble Anger
• Even Envy Can Be Used
• The Idols We Worship
• Things God Cannot Do Without Us
• We Are Each Indispensable in Our Small Parts
• Discovering Our Own Worth
• Predicting the Future
• The Fine Art of Discrimination
• At Life’s Moral Crossroads Proceed with Caution
• Everything in Moderation
• Make Warm Fuzzies—Today
• Your Pain in My Heart
• The Gifts We Do Not Give
• Giving and Living
• Listening with the Heart
• No Appreciation Without Reciprocation
• The Big Role of Little Things
• An Eternity Case
• No Two Children Are Alike
• Time—The Thoughtful Thief
• Growing Older Serenely
• Time—Friend or Foe?
• Things That Cannot Be Hurried
• Golden Calf or Tabernacle?
• The Perils of Prosperity
• What If We Can’t Love Our Neighbor?
• Promises and Piecrusts
• Let’s Place Our Bets Carefully
• Testing
• Who Is Handicapped?
• Say Yes to Life
• This Is the Day
• We Wait Too Long
• Failure—the Line of Least Persistence
• One Day at a Time
• Nothing There
• When You Come to the End of Your Rope
• Shortcuts to Distant Goals
• The Danger of Staying the Same Size
• The Principal Character Is Waiting to Appear
• Give Us Bread but Give Us Roses Too
• Forgive Us Our Virtues
• The Greatest Treason
• The Very Fine Art of Forgetting
• The High Cost of Loving
• Four Rs of Repentance
• Forgiving Those We Have Injured
• Disturbing the Comfortable
• What Faith Cannot Do
• Spiritual Indigestion
• Preventive Religion
• Give Me the Facts
• Where Serenity Is Found
• Things That Do Not Change
• Things We Can Always Count On
• Let Us Treasure Our Mona Lisas
• How Life Grows Great
• We Do Not Know How Soon It Will Be Too Late
• Thanks for What’s Not Lost
• The Search for More Abundant Life
• Why Not Me?